Five days ago…
While standing in the blazing heat, sweat soaking my back under a knapsack that seems to get heavier with every minute, I decide Angkor Wat is a disappointment. It is huge, true. It has some beautiful carvings, certainly. But it isn’t beautiful. It doesn’t move my soul the same way Machu Picchu did. The tour guide keeps yammering on about kings and carvings while crowds push past. Every view of the temple is ruined by distracting bright yellow and pink t-shirts from various tour groups. I am sad. A dream held for over a decade, and this is it. A rainbow of movement clambering for the best shot, a buzz of hundreds of voices and accents yelling excidely. I shift under the weight of my bag and sigh from boredom and impatience.
Angkor Wat. A huge, sandstone complex surrounded by a 620 foot wide moat. The moat serving an unusual purpose – keeping the clay foundation from drying out and collapsing the temple complex that sits on it. The temple contains 5 ornate towers shaped like lotus buds and its three levels rise majestically above the otherwise flat landscape. There is no doubt the engineering of Angkor Wat is an amazing feat. But from down here on the ground where it’s size and ornate towers are obscured it looks like a cement wall, nothing like the perfect aerial shots you picture when you think of Angkor Wat.
Today...
Our last day in Siem Reap and we are feeling well enough to get out and explore. One thing I really wanted to check out was the silk factory. As a child I was skeptical that silk was stronger than steel and amazed that this delicate and fine thread came from “yucky” worms. As an adult, this fascination has not diminished. The opportunity to see for myself the process of making silk from tree to worm to fabric was not something I could miss. We hired Mr. Mean, a beaming, friendly man who beguiled his name as our personal tuk-tuk driver for the day. (He later proved to be an aggressive and “mean” driver, something we appreciated when trying to fit in one last temple before sunset and temple closing time).
First stop, silk farm. Here we see a large field growing various species of Mulberry trees. Some species were even from Canada as research is conducted on the best type of Mulberry tree for making silk. We see silk worms happily munching away on Mulberry leaves. We see cotton balls of yellow that are in fact the cocoons that will be boiled, spun and dyed to create silk thread. And finally, the painstaking process of hand tying silk treads with plastic to create “tie-dyed” thread, and the mind boggling art of looming. My awe and fascination with silk only enhanced after watching skilled artisans perform the process of creating it.
After the silk factory it was time for lunch before heading back to the temples. Mr. Mean selected a restaurant for us. We enjoyed fresh coconut water and local curry with the company of our scooter tour guide from the previous day. He just happened to be at the same restaurant while waiting on his “new” client.
After lunch was the temple Preah Khan, built in the 12th century to honour the kings father. Perhaps it was the lack of crowds, (there were no more than a dozen people), the “cold” day (a wonderful 18 degrees) or not knowing what to expect from this temple. Whatever the reason, this quickly became our favourite temple bumping Banteay Srei, Ta Prohm and Bayon down the list. This temple had it all. A large temple with beautiful earthy reds, greys and greens, surrounded by a picturesque moat. Massive trees over growing temple walls. Beautiful carvings of apsara dancers. It had everything the other four famous temples had together. We explored this temples many rooms, surrounding ponds, jungle and elaborate carvings in peace. The only company we had were birds singing and mosquitoes buzzing. I finally felt the magic. Not just the magic of this one temple, but I came to appreciate the incredible magnitude of the temples taken together.
The sun was quickly dipping behind the massive trees and dusk was inevitable. We wanted to see one last temple, one on the opposite side of Angkor city from where we were. Mr. Mean was confident he could get us there before closing time and we raced off in the tuk-tuk, beaming with joy as we sped past even more temples (Ta Keo) and other tuk-tuks whose passengers looked at us with incredulity and fear as we played chicken with oncoming vehicles. Mr. Mean was a fellow driver.
We made it to Banteay Kdei as the sun was setting. The only two people there. No doubt everyone else was fighting for a view from one of the many sunset temple viewpoints. Not as beautiful as Preah Khan or Benteay Srei, or as magical as Ta Prohm, it was still magnificent.
I was told we would get sick of seeing temples. That they would all look the same after awhile. As the sun was setting over this, our last temple, I was thankful I wasn’t at this point yet. I was able to appreciate the unique beauty of this final temple and leave Siem Reap with a deep sense of gratitude that we were able to visit this truly incredible place.
To complete our visit to Cambodia we headed downtown for a final walk around Old Market. We hadn’t yet had a fish massage and this was the last item on my Siem Reap bucket list. Once we were there, standing in front of the aquarium full of fish that suddenly seemed much bigger than I remembered, I wasn’t so sure. I have a fear of water for a reason. I don’t like the “things” that inhabit it. Even a dolphin will scare me senseless when it suddenly surfaces next to me while windsurfing or SUP’ing.
Shawn reminded me that this was on my bucket list and that I had to do it. Of course he was right. I pulled off my shoes and took the proverbial and literal plunge. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. It was worse. I thought the sensation would be that of a light poking. It was more like hundreds of small electric pulses. It tickled and occasionally stung. It was an awful yet addictive sensation. After 10-15 minutes I was done. Shawn lasted a few minutes. We were good for business, convincing numerous other tourists to give it a shot, including a friendly young Brazilian woman. We stayed to support her as she gave it a skeptical try.
Where do they get the fish? From the river running through Siem Reap. Where do the fish go when they get too big? Back to the river for fishermen to catch and BBQ on street side stalls. Feeding the tourists the same fish that just fed off their feet. You had to love the resourcefulness.
When we got back to our hotel later that night I was shocked. My feet were perfectly smooth. The fish massage was better than any pedicure I had ever gotten. I laughed. What I thought was just another tourist trap actually worked.
Final thoughts…
Having now seen numerous temples in the Siam Reap area, I am a believer. This place is special. The temples taken together are a spectacular display of engineering, architecture and intricate beauty. The surrounding jungle that has overgrown many of the temples is an added seduction that only enhances the magic and mystery of the temples.
This is a bucket list item that will not disappoint.
After riding through the countryside we arrived at the mountain range of Phnom Kulen. A 40 km long range, 400 meters high. Also the source of the sandstone used to build many of he Angkor Temples. We climbed up a series of switchbacks through forest and massive boulders.
Live Life Epic 